Roger Goodell defended the NFL’s priorities in a rather awkward way on Friday.
Goodell spoke to Richard Conway of the BBC and was asked about the ongoing Josh Brown domestic violence situation. In particular, Goodell was asked about the criticisms of the league’s priorities on cracking down on celebrations while players like Brown get off relatively easily.
“I understand the public’s misunderstanding of those things and how that can be difficult for them to understand how we get to those positions,” Goodell said. “But those are things that we have to do. I think it’s a lot deeper and a lot more complicated than it appears but it gets a lot of focus.”
It gets a lot of focus because it doesn’t seem to add up, and blaming the public for not understanding it well enough isn’t going to win Goodell any new converts. We’re well aware of the reasoning Goodell has given for the crackdown on celebrations. We also know, however, that it isn’t just the public that disapproves of Goodell’s handling of the Brown situation. Perhaps the NFL does have an explanation for the discrepancy, but we’re not hearing it.
